Olympic Home Church

I was intending to do home church today, but since I had gone to church last night and it was snowing on top of icy sidewalks when it would've been time to walk the boys to church I decided that home church was our only option.  Thankfully a few weeks ago (when it was on sale for $5) I bought a great unit study on the Olympics in Sochi.  This was a great start for the curriculum today.  I chose the theme verse from Week 1 in the study, Joshua 1:9, be strong and courageous.  We first started with learning about where the Olympics were and used several links from the study.  The boys loved the overview video about Russia's geography and then their "Ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway."  Then we studied where Sochi was on the Russia map and then briefly about all the work they did in Sochi to prepare for the games.  The boys LOVED the explanation videos.  

And they set us up to talk about all sorts of things to tie it back into the Lord.. His great, diverse creation, all the unique nationalities and the physical strength and abilities He's given us to perform such amazing athletic feats.  After this multi-media portion, we headed into the kitchen for some coloring.  I had printed maps of Russia for the boys to color.  Tav went at it and did a great job color-coding some regions all on his own initiative.

I gave Koen some extra challenges pulling up some maps of Russia online so that he could see where the bodies of water were and where the major cities were.  He couldn't get enough of it.  He just kept wanting to color in and label away.  A boy after my own heart.  I've always loved geography.

Penn was pretty jealous about all these activities the big boys were getting to do, so he wanted to color too.  He didn't get a map, but he loved coloring his scrap paper with every utensil at his fingertips.

 After the maps, we moved on to trying to reproduce the Olympic flag.  

I had them write the verse on the flag.  Tavin's was the short version, but here's Koen's long version.  He was so excited about this whole activity.  

Here's his Russia map (and he added Japan himself drawing it in because he loves Japan due to the Asia unit they are doing at school).

Here's Tav's finished map.  I love the colors!

After all the coloring, we headed back to the living room and we read the Bible story about Joshua being strong and courageous in trusting God and taking the city of Jericho following God's commands.  Then we also read the David and Goliath story, another great illustration of strength and courage for God.  After that the boys got to do their favorite part of home church...watch a 30 min. DVD on the subject.  =)  And that was Penn's favorite part too because he was cranky!!  We went upstairs for some much needed one-on-one time.  After the boys finished their Bible show, I let them watch some pre-recorded Olympic hockey footage while I made lunch.  Then I sent them out into the backyard that had just received a fresh layer of snow for their own hockey practice.  Lately they've been playing that they are the ice crew. =)  

All in all home church took about an hour and a half.  It was a super fun morning.  I LOVE the Olympics, but even more I love these opportunities to use real life to help show our kids something about God and the potential they have to serve Him in anything they put their hand to.